I am praying for the laity and clergy of the Mountain Sky Conference as we prepare for Sunday worship.
This week the cabinet meeting in Salt Lake City for a three day retreat following jurisdictional conference. Once again, the good people of First UMC provided generous hospitality which included our meeting space and delicious home-cooked lunches (thank you, First UMC friends!).
In the basement, there were two tables upon which sat sheets of wood. As the days passed and the work at those tables progressed, I saw angels’ wings emerge. I then realized that these were the makings for those angel wings that people love to have their pictures taken by.
The world is in need of angels. Angels that appear when we least expect and stop us in our tracks. Angels that remind us to “be not afraid”. Angels that tell us something wonderful is about to happen. Angels that help us open our minds and heart to something that feels scary yet life-giving.
These are God’s messengers, disrupters of the status quo, harbingers of God’s possibilities breaking forth in our world. Perhaps the reason why angel wing walls are popping up on buildings in many towns and cities is that we are so very hungry to hear angels sing to us, “Peace on earth, good will to all.” In an age where malignant rhetoric, wanton violence and dangerous divisions plague us, we are desperate for the Good News that God is still with us and even through this mess good will emerge.
I do believe angels walk among us. They are in the checkout line with us at the grocery store. They ride the bus with us. They wave to us as our cars pass on a country road. They might not have wings, but make no mistake: they are sent from God and bear gifts of love and peace. They can help bring healing to broken hearts and hope to a fractured world.
Helen Keller once wrote: “I believe there are angels among us, sent down to us from somewhere up above. They come to you and me in our darkest hours, to show us how to live, to teach us how to give, to guide us with a light of love.”
May you be in the lookout for angels. Listen for their song. Take heart from their message. And then share their Good News with others.